In surgery of the spine, for example, for pedicular drilling, the bone cortex is often crossed, broken or damaged by the drilling instrument, that may then lead to poor positioning of the pedicular screws. Following this poor positioning, the pedicular screws, inducing pain, paralysis, haemorrhage, etc. in the patient, may require another surgical intervention or, in certain cases, cause irreparable damage.
FR 2 835 732 discloses a device to monitor penetration of an instrument (drill or other type of instrument) in the vertebra by measuring the differences in the electrical impedance during penetration so that the practitioner is constantly aware whether the end of the instrument is leaving the bone cortex and penetrating into a zone of soft tissue (marrow, nerves, tissue). In that case, the practitioner modifies the path of the penetration instrument to return to the bone cortex.
Such a device may also be used to detect the formation of a gap in the bone cortex during drilling.
To facilitate repositioning of the penetration instrument during a drilling operation (or similar type of operation such as tapping, boring, etc.), but also to enable proper positioning of the pedicular screw or any other surgical instrument, the practitioner has to know the exact position of the gaps formed during the drilling.
It could therefore be advantageous to provide an exploration device indicating the position of the gaps formed during a drilling (or similar) operation.